A Look on the NIL Landscape in Swimming

A Look on the NIL Landscape in Swimming

The NCAA permitted Name, Image, and Likeness compensation in 2021, opening the door for collegiate athletes to earn cash by way of endorsements and sponsorships. When it involves NIL, soccer and basketball dominate the headlines. Swimming, then again, doesn’t obtain that very same consideration. Still, the game is starting to make waves within the NIL market as Olympians and NCAA champions proceed to land partnerships.

The NCAA’s NIL Data Dashboard reveals that prime income sports activities nonetheless dominate the market share. As a non-revenue sport, swimming clearly lags in each deal counts and {dollars} per athlete. That stated, swimmers usually are not completely overlooked. Many are securing smaller, but significant partnerships, typically with swimwear manufacturers or native companies, whereas a number of standouts earn bigger contracts because of their accomplishments. 

A Wide Gap

Football accounts for 41.6 p.c of reported NIL offers in 2025, protecting the game king in income. Swimming, by comparability, is listed underneath “other,” which makes up 9.7 p.c. Swimmers are solely a fraction of that 9.7 p.c, highlighting simply how restricted their share of the NIL panorama actually is.

In the NCAA NIL Dashboard, the 2025 income share consists of males’s and ladies’s collegiate swimming mixed. The common complete earnings for a swimmer are $514, whereas the median athlete earnings are simply $50. For comparability, soccer’s common athlete earnings are $38,476, with a median of $1,734. The numbers illustrate simply how massive the hole is between the income sports activities and swimming.

Limited Exposure, Limited Deals

Swimming has a smaller share of NIL cash due to the game’s restricted publicity. College swimming not often attracts main media protection apart from the Olympics, World Championships and NCAA Championships. That leaves swimmers with out the visibility or platforms that act because the catalyst for offers in soccer. 

In the swimming world, NIL agreements typically cowl each day wants quite than life-changing earnings, akin to grocery cash or journey bills. A majority of NIL offers in swimming come from swim-specific manufacturers or native companies. They present significant help for swimmers, however it’s not the kind of earnings that can change an athlete’s monetary future. 

Looking Ahead

When speaking about swimming and NIL, you will need to look to the long run. NIL is not going to have an effect on the game in the identical approach it has with soccer. Olympic years and NCAA championships are important for reinforcing consideration to swimmers, giving the celebrities on this sport their likelihood within the highlight. Those moments can result in bigger contracts, however for many swimmers, NIL will stay a supply of sensible assist quite than function a life-changer. Until swimming turns into a continuing in main media, the monetary hole between it and excessive income sports activities will proceed to develop.

Gretchen Walsh’s Success

One swimmer who set the usual for what a prime NIL earner will be is Gretchen Walsh. Her success in NIL was fueled by her dominance within the pool. While on the University of Virginia, she gained a number of NCAA titles and set information in a number of occasions, together with the 50-yard freestyle, 100-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly. She additionally carried that success onto the worldwide stage, the place she was the 2024 Olympic silver medalist within the 100 butterfly and the 2025 world champion within the 50 butterfly and 100 fly.

Her partnerships set an instance of how a collegiate swimmer can develop a private model. Walsh has offers with Arena and Celsius, and she or he even launched her personal co-branded swimwear line by way of Sporti. These are the prime alternatives accessible to collegiate swimmers. It is clear that success within the water goes hand in hand with success in NIL offers.

Examples within the Pool Today

Claire Curzan is a reputation to know within the NIL area. After transferring from Stanford to the University of Virginia in 2023, she maintained her standing as an elite performer within the sport. She signed a take care of Crocs in 2023 and added a partnership with New Era in April 2025. There is a typical denominator between Curzan and Walsh: success within the sport and a reliance on social media earnings. Their NIL earnings come much less from straight money contracts and extra from selling merchandise by way of their on-line platforms.

To spotlight the significance of social media for these offers, Isabella Smith serves as a robust instance. Smith is a diver at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis with a robust social media attain. With greater than 230,000 followers on TikTookay, she has opened the door to alternatives to earn cash in a non-revenue collegiate sport like swimming and diving. Because of her social media presence, she has a profile on Opendorse the place she lists charges for social media posts, shoutouts and even autographs. Opendorse works as a market, serving to athletes promote themselves and ensuring any agreements meet NCAA tips. To give an thought, Smith’s costs begin at $627 for a social media publish, $142 for a shoutout, and $45 for an autograph. Those numbers could appear small in contrast with revenue-sports athletes, however they nonetheless give athletes priceless alternatives to earn cash.

Swimming’s Lane Forward

The actuality of NIL in swimming is that the cash stays small compared to main sports activities. Most swimmers solely see modest earnings to assist with each day bills. The equalizer to that is social media. Social media is offering swimmers the prospect to construct their private manufacturers and safe offers that transcend the pool. As these platforms proceed to develop, so does the income a swimmer can earn. The secret is growing a presence on-line and utilizing main occasions just like the Olympics and NCAA championships to highlight the celebrities of the game. Social media will be the avenue that turns small NIL checks into greater alternatives for swimmers sooner or later. The race for NIL alternatives begins within the water, however ends with a swimmer’s private model.